Stratagies for Improving Economic Mobility of Workers

Bridging Research and Practice

Maude Toussaint-Comeau and Bruce D. Meyer, Editors

Publication Year: 2009

The contributors to this book provide a provocative assessment of the effectiveness of various policies and practices designed to help disadvantaged segments of our population overcome the obstacles in their path to upward economic mobility.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

The conference “Strategies for Improving Economic Mobility of Workers,”
held in Chicago on November 15–16, 2007, and the publication of this
conference volume are a joint project of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
and the W.E. UpJohn Institute for Employment Research.
Maude Toussaint-Comeau originated...

1 - Introduction

On November 15–16, 2007, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research cosponsored
a conference at the Chicago Fed, “Strategies for Improving Economic
Mobility of Workers.” The conference’s purpose was threefold: 1) to
bring together researchers...

The issue of economic opportunity for the disadvantaged has grown
in importance. It is well known that inequality in economic outcomes
has increased. Those at the lowest end of the wage spectrum, with less...

3 Past Trends and Projections in Wages, Work, and Occupations in the United States

It is widely recognized that inequality of labor market earnings in
the United States has increased dramatically in recent decades. This may
be seen in Figure 3.1, adapted from Autor, Katz, and Kearney (2008),
which plots the growth of real hourly wages of U.S. workers (both male...

4 The Earned Income Tax Credit, Welfare Reform,and the Employment of Low-Skilled Single Mothers

Cash assistance for low-income families with children underwent
tremendous change in the 1990s. Welfare reform led to a dramatic
reduction in the generosity of state cash assistance and an elimination
of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. At
the same time, cash assistance...

5 Reflections on EconomicMobility and Policy

This chapter comments on presentations from the “Strategies for
Improving Economic Mobility of Workers” conference and discusses
trends in the material circumstances of Americans. I will also briefly
discuss some policies that have been used to equalize the distribution
of resources.
In looking at trends over...

6 Helping Low-Wage Workers Persist in Education Programs

Employment has long been held to be an important deterrent against
poverty, and work is at the heart of a range of federal efforts to improve
the economic well-being of low-income families. However, full-time,
stable work alone is not sufficient to alleviate poverty: more than half of
the families, with children...

7 Financial Aid and Older Workers

Educational trends increasingly highlight the growing numbers of
older students who are seeking postsecondary training. According to
figures from the 2006 Digest of Education Statistics (NCES 2007), only
28 percent of the college population was age 25 or above in 1970. However,..

8 Can Residential Mobility Programs Improve Human Capital?

Underlying some arguments for residential mobility is an implicit
assumption that low-income individuals’ capabilities can be improved
by residential moves. We can conceive of four kinds of social influences...

9 What Might Improve the Employment and Advancement Prospects of the Poor?

During the past few decades, millions of less-educated workers
have poured into the labor market in the United States, many as a result
of welfare reform and immigration. But, while many of these workers
have become successfully attached to the labor market, their wages often...

10 What We Know About the Impacts of Workforce Investment Programs

This chapter briefly reviews the recent literature that seeks to evaluate
employment and training programs, as well as important older papers.
We focus on the question of whether the programs have measurable
and economically...

11 Correctional Programs in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Beginning in the mid-1970s the convergence of several social and
economic forces changed the size, face, and nature of the U.S. penal
system. In terms of the size of the penal system, changes in criminal
justice policies associated with the government’s fight against drugs and
crime mean that more convictions...

Community organizations have proliferated over time. These nonprofit
entities may provide a range of services, or they may provide a
very specific set of services targeted to residents of a geographically
defined area, such as a neighborhood...

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